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Peace & Justice

1. The ICC and Sudan

2. Peace and justice overview

3. Crisis Group reports and briefings

4. Recent articles and other commentary by Crisis Group

5. Links to other resources on the web

Picture: Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir attends the African Union (AU) summit in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa, January 31, 2010. REUTERS

updated July 2009

1. The ICC and Sudan

The decision by the the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue a warrant of arrest for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Darfur is a welcome and crucial step towards challenging the impunity that has worsened conflict in Darfur and elsewhere in Sudan. The Sudanese government must exercise restraint in its response to the decision, and ensure that its actions do not undermine the opportunity to achieve peace in Sudan. It must also take genuine steps to transform the political institutions and policies that drive conflict in Sudan. The response by the Sudanese people, their government, the region and the international community will help determine whether this is the beginning of genuine democratic transformation in Sudan, or whether Bashir’s regime, including the army and other security services, will continue on their destructive path.

For more background on Sudan, Darfur and the ICC, visit our Peventing Implosion in Sudan page, or click here for a list of all Crisis Group Sudan reports and commentary.

2. Peace and justice overview

Peace and justice are both of fundamental importance when it comes to ending conflicts. But reconciling them in the context of a peace process can present significant challenges.

Peace negotiations often bring together parties that have committed atrocity crimes and are eager to absolve themselves of responsibility. Those parties also often have the ability to perpetuate the conflict and commit further crimes. Yet justice issues, and the demands of the local and international communities, cannot be ignored, particularly because holding past perpetrators to account is vital to deterring future atrocities.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is a critical part of the international architecture to address atrocity crimes. The ICC has initiated prosecutions of individuals involved in some of the most devastating conflict situations in Africa – Darfur, northern Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic. Some of these investigations highlight the challenges of reconciling peace and justice. Yet the ICC also has an important role to play in conflict prevention and resolution, and international support for it must not waver.  

This page aims to bring together the Crisis Group reporting and commentary that addresses the ICC and the challenges of peace and justice. It also presents a collection of other relevant online resources.

3. Crisis Group reports and briefings

On Uganda

On Darfur

Other conflict situations

4. Recent articles and other commentary by Crisis Group

5. Links to other resources on the web

Key ICC and UN documents

Organisations working on justice in conflict settings

  • International Center for Transitional Justice – Website of the ICTJ, which assists countries pursuing accountability for past mass atrocity or human rights abuse.
  • Coalition for the International Criminal Court – Global network of 2,500 NGOs advocating for a fair, effective and independent Criminal Court.
  • Human Rights First – Working to build respect for human rights and rule of law, with particular attention to preventing and protecting against crimes against humanity and combating the impunity of perpetrators.
  • Human Rights Watch – International Justice Program – Monitors the work of the ICC, other International Criminal Tribunals and Special Courts, and also supports the efforts by national courts to apply universal jurisdiction legislation in a domestic setting.                                                    
  • Amnesty International – International Justice – Outlines of international justice, the International Criminal Court, the concept of universal jurisdiction, and of the International Criminal Tribunals.
  • Open Society Justice Initiative – An operational program of the Open Society Institute that pursues law reform activities grounded in the protection of human rights.
  • Humanitarian Law Center – An organisation which aims to promote human rights and the rule of law in post-Yugoslav societies.
  • Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue – A conflict mediation organisation that aims to offer strategic support to the justice and rule of law sector through its Justice and Peacemaking project.
  • Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice – An international human rights organisation working to ensure justice for women and that gender-based crimes and violence are a priority for the ICC.
  • Research Group on Transitional Justice - An international team of academics and practitioners who conduct research, teaching and consultancy work in the area of transitional justice based at the Leuven Institute for Criminology, Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium.
  • Justice for Darfur - A campaign supported by human rights organisations worldwide, calling on the international community to ensure the prompt arrest and surrender to the International Criminal Court of the persons charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur, Sudan.

Publications and papers

  • "Negotiating Peace in Liberia - Preserving the possibility for Justice" – November 2007 case study by Priscilla Haynerwhich of the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue on how specific justice issues came to be included and potentially excluded in the Accra peace accord.
  • "Building a future on peace and justice" – June 2007 Nuremberg conference on peace and justice. A conference convened to contribute to a better understanding of the tensions between peace and justice in peace processes and post-conflict peacebuilding. The conference consisted of plenary sessions addressing key issues relating to conflict resolution, justice and development, and parallel workshops bringing together expert panels to examine topics including mediation, justice in situations of ongoing conflict, reconciliation and national and legal frameworks. Participant experts submitted papers for consideration during the workshops. A "Nuremberg Declaration on Peace and Justice" is expected in the first half of 2008 to summarise the conference conclusions as a set of political recommendations.
  • "The International Criminal Court and Conflict Mediation" – Occasional paper by Paul Seils and Marieke Wierda at the International Center for Transitional Justice, June 2005.
  • "Accountability for Past Abuses" – Working version of a paper by Juan Mendez that appeared in Human Rights Quarterly in 1997.
  • "Justice for a Lawless World? Rights and reconciliation in a new era of international law" – IRIN In-depth, June 2006, focusing on key issues relating to international justice, including impunity, the costs of justice and justice in peacebuilding, and also featuring frontline reports from twelve countries, including Argentina, Cambodia, Morocco and Sierra Leone, and interviews with figures such as Luis Moreno Ocampo, Samantha Power, Juan Mendez and Noam Chomsky.
  • International Journal of Transitional Justice – Launched in 2007 by Oxford University Press, aims to span research and writing of both academics and practitioners.
  • International Justice Tribune – Twice monthly online journal covering international criminal justice issues.
  • For a bibliography listing a wide range of over 1,400 articles and monographs on transitional justice, ranging from 1945 commentary on the Nuremberg trials to 2007 work on the role of memorials in social reconstruction transitional justice, visit the University of Wisconsin’s transitional justice database project.